Yamani Style
by LittleWildFlower
Summary: Kel has to help perform a welcoming dance for the Yamani delegation who has come to visit, but has to wear a rather uncomfortable dress. But someone else doesnt mind it...(Suggestive thoughts inside but nothing dramatic)


**YAMANI STYLE**

**So I have been wanting to write this one shot for a while and I just somehow have never managed to open my laptop for this purpose, as others may realise I haven't written anything in at least half a year, my apologies! And people got confused with the POV's in my last K/D story so im just gunna use line breaks and hopefully that makes things easier. Read Away!**

**So yes it's a bit of a Kel/Dom (of course!) and NO I don't own POTS.**

'Yuki I don't see why I have to do this!' Kel sighed while watching her friend prepare the things they would need.

'You know why my dear Kel, the dance requires five, you know the dance and the Emperor respects your mother and you more than if we were to teach some other Tortallan the routine.'

'Is the Emperor coming?' Kel exclaimed.

'No. But there are some very important people coming in the delegation and they will be reporting everything back, so we must make their arrival the best we can.'

'I know that. But why must you torture me with all this?' As she gestured to the bowl of water, soap, towels and a shaver like the men use.

It was sometimes a Yamani custom for the women to shave their legs on special occasions, but only with a particular ceremonial dress if they had to wear it. And it wasn't the dance that bothered Kel or the simple full length tunic style of a dress with a wrap around the waist, it was the long splits on both sides of the kimono that came up to her thigh, much more skin than Kel would like to show, to make easier movement in the dance and gives the multiple layered skirt more movement and swirl when they spun around.

'Oh Kel its not going to be that bad and you know it! Now come and sit down so we can get started.' She pushed Kel down and tugged off her boots and pants leaving Kel in her tunic and loin cloth. She lathered Kel's legs with the soap and started to move the little knife with precise movements up her legs and properly removing any hair from Kel's legs.

'Yuki I could do this you know' slightly uncomfortable with the sharp knife against her leg.

'Maybe, but you haven't done this before and have just as much chance, even more, as letting this knife slip and slicing your leg and leaving a gash for everyone to see. Now be quiet I'm almost done!'

Kel sighed and slumped back in the chair resigned to letting Yuki do this for her, because she knew she was right and didn't want to look even more foolish than she already would in front the court and some very significant people, including a particular Sergeant. Thinking about all the people that will be watching her was making Kel even more nervous and was glad they would be wearing so much face paint that some people might not recognise her. Maybe.

'Here, rub this in.' Kel looked up at Yuki who was now standing and holding a tub out to her. Kel grabbed it and moved to a different seat, realising that her legs were finished and Yuki wanted to do her own.

'What is it?'

'Kel do you not recognise a simple moisturiser? It'll help keep your legs smooth and shiny which means you have to put it on now, tonight and twice tomorrow.' Yuki then laughed at her expression.

'Yuki! Its me, I don't know anything about this kind of girly stuff.' While she said this she scooped a dollop on her finger and smelt it expecting the worst, but instead finding a quite pleasant flowery smell and started to rub the cold cream all over her legs. And she had to admit that her skin did look silky and even felt so.

'See that wasn't so bad was it? Now you can keep that, I have another and I'll see you here tomorrow at the fifth bell.'

Kel gave a small grin while pulling on breeches and boots. 'Thanks Yuki, see you then.'

It was coming up to the fifth bell and Kel was slowly making her way back to Yuki's and Neal's rooms dreading what was there and the dance she would have to perform later. All morning her stomach was in knots, she had tried to practice her weapons to keep her mind off it, but it always came back and was now even more scared when she saw Dom this morning and he said that he was 'Interested to see the dance tonight', with a wicked gleam in his eyes. Now Kel didn't know if that meant he was interested to see her tonight or to see if she would make a mistake and embarrass herself, but either way it made Kel even more determined to do her best so she didn't stuff up in front of her crush.

The others and a couple of maids were already there when she arrived. She said a quick greeting to Yuki and Lady Haname and hugs to her mother and Shinko who she hadn't seen in a couple of days. There was a bath waiting and Kel was stripped and pushed in by Yuki, who was the only one who seemed to be stressing, but also was the only one who was fully dressed. The others were still in the process of putting on their kimonos and were already getting their face painted by the time Kel was pulling on her own forest green kimono with gold wrap and stitching, the colours matching her hazel eyes. As a maid was putting the wrap around her, thankfully not too tight, she watched the other women and decided the different colours of their own kimonos suited them well. Her mother was wearing a blue similar to the Mindelan colour with a white wrap, while Shinko's was completely different, with a deep ruby red and black wrap. Yuki's and Lady Haname's were more similar in colours with Yuki in a pale pink with a darker pink wrap and Haname with an orange wrap and yellow dress. In each of the women's wrap was a customary red and gold shukusen and there was five glaives resting against the wall that were part of the performance.

The room had been filled with idle chatter about the new fashions or new couples around the court which Kel had no particular interest in at all and spent that time picturing herself by her peaceful and calm blue lake, feeling the warm breeze flow by her and gentle warmth of the sun's rays on her face as she lay on the soft sweet smelling grass. Picturing herself in this position set a great sense of relief and calm in her and when she opened her eyes she already felt twenty times better and was ready to dance. That wasn't the only change though when she opened her eyes. She was now sitting in front of a mirror and instead of her normal face it was powdered white, black eyelash ink had been applied to her eyes and her lips were a shade similar to that of Shinko's dress and when she looked at the others they all looked similar and all their hair, even Kel's now longer hair were pulled back into a tight knot at the nape of their necks. And Kel was snapped out of her reverie when Yuki clapped her hands.

'Alright ladies, we are done! Time to get this show on the road.' Each lady grabbed a glaive, holding it diagonally across their body in the rest position and walked to the main hall in single file, where they would be introduced before the delegation and perform the dance straight away as a welcoming ceremony.

Kels nerves started to come back and she could feel the slight chill that reached through the slits of the dress as they moved apart when she walked. As they were being announced into the hall, Kel pulled on her best Yamani face like all the others and moved into formation in the middle of the hall.

King John stood with the Queen at the thrones, 'We are very pleased to welcome our guests from the Yamani Isles into our home and to those Lords and Ladies who are here. May I welcome you formally into our abode with this ceremonial welcoming dance, performed by some important and grateful additions to this land, Princess Shinkokami, Lady Illane of Mindelan, Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan, Lady Haname noh Ajikuro and Lady Yukimi noh Daiomoru.' When all the names had been said they bowed as a one and turned inwards to form a circle.

Slowly they began with a simple pattern dance with their glaives and gradually picked up pace until the deadly staffs were blurs in their hands. The women themselves were a flurry of skirts as the layers spun and colours flashed everywhere.

Dom stood at the front of the crowd in complete awe, being one of the few that had trust in their skill and that he would not be struck by a stray blade. There was complete silence all around and every pair of eyes was on the five extremely deadly looking women in front of him in either admiration or terror, or even a mix of both. But he couldn't take his eyes off the graceful mover clothed in green. He had seen Kel practice before but this just looked completely different, and it wasn't because of the dress. There was a different grace in her movements, a continuous flow that she had in her body and he was entranced.

Suddenly there was a short whistle and all five stopped, each in a different pose and Dom's eyes almost popped out of his head. Kel was standing with her legs apart and knees slightly bent with her glaive pointing towards him, but it wasn't that which caused his surprise. He barely noticed anything bar the soft and smooth skin of her legs now showing on either side of the skirt because of her wide stance. There was no way his eyes were moving off those strong thighs from years of leg work and horse riding, they weren't small in the least, but he knew they were powerful. And despite being constantly covered by clothes he saw they were a darker, almost tan, colour than he expected. And to say the least, now it wasn't only his heart that held desire for the Lady Knight. Not to say he didn't before, but ever since he realised his feelings for Kel were more than that of friends or brotherly affection he had stopped his outrageous flirting and womanizing ways, and it had been more than a year since he followed her into Scanra.

Eventually he realised they had started moving again but this time, instead of glaives, they had those sharp heavy fans and were twirling them in their hands and would occasionally chuck them up for another to catch after a turn or sometimes a flip of sorts. And though he was appreciating the dance his eyes were now trained on her legs in the hopes he would see them again when the skirts flew apart. And he decided then that he was going to have to make Kel his because there was no way he could bare to think about those legs being touched by someone else.

When Dom said he would be 'interested' to watch the dance Kel did not expect him to be staring at her the entire time. Every time she turned his way she sought him out and there he was, staring at her with what looked of mild surprise on his face. She thought it was just because he hadn't seen her in a dress before, but knew that wasn't it when she stopped at Shinko's whistle. She finished with her glaive pointing at him and if she hadn't stopped already, the look he had on his face would've possibly made her fall. The only way should describe it was admiration and more importantly, desire, and she had never seen this directed at her before, only ever at the court ladies that had much better figures than her cow stature. There was no denying though, the eruption of feelings that was now swirling all over her body and the imprint of his eyes as they caught hers for a single second before she turned to begin with the fan.

For the rest if the dance and the night she saw those bright burning blue eyes looking directly at her full of a passion that she was only just feeling, and maybe thought there was a chance he liked her and her dream of years was going to happen. She didn't even not the booming round of applaud=se that was given to their performance, and hardly remembered anything or anyone she had spoken to. But the night drew on and he made no approach, when she went to join a group that he might also be standing with she would see him leave before she reached it and each time he left she fought back the feelings of disappointment.

Eventually she decided to forget about Dom and left the evening to find her bed, dejected and lonely. Not realising at all that more than one set of eyes had followed her all night, but there was only one sapphire pair that followed her out of the hall and back to her rooms.

Kel was not so distracted that she didn't notice the quiet set of footsteps that had been with her since she left the hall, and when she was closer to her rooms she ducked into a little alcove. As the stranger passed she jumped out giving him a firm punch in the gut then grabbing his wrist and pulling it up to his shoulder blade while pulling out her shukusen and holding it at his throat. But Dom, no stranger to jousting the lady, grabbed her wrist with the fan and twisted out of her grip so he had both of her own wrists in his hands above her head and pushed her body with his to the wall making it harder for her to struggle (incriminating position I know!).

'Now Kel. That's not a very nice way to greet a friend is it?'

Kel stopped struggling the moment she heard his voice and felt him relax his grip but noticed he made no attempt to move. 'Well most people don't follow their friends back to their rooms in a creepy stalking manner.' She thought for a glimpse that she saw that same look from before and it ignited her own feelings, but decided to blame it on the bad lighting and was suddenly filled with anger for this man, who was holding her against a wall and had no reason to do so. It was just making her feelings even more confused.

'What do you want Dom? If you didn't notice I was going somewhere.'

All the sudden the look was back and Kel shuddered, but not with fright. Was his face getting closer?

'Oh Kel I noticed all right. How could I not! I spent most of the night looking at you and the rest of it trying to not look at you! But its not only tonight, half the time when I'm with you I can't help but have my eyes on you. And when I'm not with you I think about you all the time, ever since I followed you into Scanra you have become more to me than just a friend. You are my leader, my hero, mother,' at this she gave a little snort in laughter, 'and a beautiful women who does more for others than they deserve and it is for all these things that I love you Kel. And I decided tonight that I was not going to give you the chance of being someone else's. You are mine and I don't want to let you go.'

Kel was speechless. 'Wow. Aaahh….'

'But I guess if you don't want…'

'No! No. No. It's not that! Its just ahh… Do you mind letting me go for a minute my arms are getting sore.'

'Oh of course.' He let them drop but also took a couple of steps back and wouldn't look directly at her.

'Im just really confused becau-'

'Look Kel you don't have to say anything I'll just leave.' He started to turn away but Kel went towards him and punched him in the shoulder.

'Ow what was that for?!'

'Because you're not giving me a chance to talk you meathead!'

'Excuse me, there is no need to defile me with that name, but go ahead, I'll listen.' There was a small smile but it didn't reach his eyes.

Kel sighed and started to talk again. 'As I was saying, im quite confused because earlier tonight while I was dancing I saw you and you seemed pretty…interested…lets say, in me, and I was happy because I thought "finally, after so long he likes me back!". But then later whenever I tried to get near you, you always walked away, so I thought maybe I was wrong and you didn't like me. But now here you are saying you love me of all things, and Dom im no court lady, sometimes I need things straight forward to understand them.'

Dom's smile had grown with every one of her words. 'Did you say "likes me back"?'

Kel started because she wasn't expecting him to ask this out of what she just said. 'Well… yes… but tha-' She was stopped suddenly by a warm pair of lips against her own and a hand against her neck and hip pulling her closer, while her hands went up to his shoulder and around his back and she slowly started pulling him towards her door.

'The only reason I avoided you Kel was because if you got any closer to me I don't think I would've been able to control myself. I would've shown my love in front of everyone and taken you there.

Despite how hard she tried she couldn't stop that blush that spread across her cheeks and tried to look away. But straight away felt Doms finger lifting her head up and back towards him.

'I don't see you blush enough. God's you're beautiful.' He said, before kissing her again and stopping any response from her.

As she felt her door against her back she stopped the kiss, 'Say it again.'

'Say what?' He asked, pulling away to look at her.

'You know what.'

He moved forward again looking her in the eyes, 'I' he said then kissed her on the forehead, 'Love' a kiss on the nose, 'You,' and finished with a kiss on the lips.

Kel smiled into the kiss. 'Good! Because I love you too.'

**And there you have it! Another one from me and I hope you all enjoyed it and it makes sense to you all. Xox**

**LittleWildFlower**


End file.
